Next generation CRBT: Listen song of your choice

CRBT (Caller ring back tone), also popular as “Hello Tunes” in India, has generated almost 25% of total VAS ( Value Added Service) revenues. This kind of revenue pattern is same worldwide where CRBT has been a major revenue earner for any telephone service provider in its VAS portfolio.

So, what is the next of CRBT ?

If one observes closely about this music or song in mobile industry, one will observe certain trends. Here is how it worked.

Ring tone :
First, popular songs were used a ring tone which was played in the mobile handset as soon as any incoming call came. Not too distant in the past, it was a major revenue source for all involved in it, music producer, Mobile Phone service provider and VAS provider. But with lowering cost of high end mobile phone with MP3 players, and Blue Tooth enabled Mobile phone with easy computer connectivity has almost wiped out Mono Ring Tone from the market. Now, mono ring tones are heard only in very low cost mobile handsets.


RBT ( Ring Back Tone):
Once, Ring Tone revenue was going down, CRBT ( Caller Ring Back Tone) came along! Though the technical term remained RBT ( Ring Back Tone), it was christened with various names in India by various mobile operators, like Hello Tunes, Caller Tunes, PRBT ( Personalised Ring Back Tone) etc. In CRBT, a song was played to the caller by the called party and the called party could configure which song to be played. The called party could even configure specific song for specific phone number based on caller id detected.

So, song used to play on the handset, heard the handset owner in incoming call and could be configured by the handset owner. It graduated to be played on incoming call, but heard by the caller, configured by the called party ( equivalent of the handset owner), now the phone number owner! The caller has not control on the song or music he listens as RBT!

So the next generation CRBT is, listening to music as per your choice while you are calling a phone number! Technically, its implementation is same though!

UPDATE : Tata Docommo in India is already providing this kind of service where caller listens to a song every time hi makes an outgoing call as per his choice. It is powered by ‘Reverse CRBT’ from OnMobile, major VAS company in India.

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